Saturday, February 16, 2013

Historical Sew Fortnightly: Embellishment

Can I still count it as an historical embellishment project if it's not entirely period-accurate? I took my plain dark green shieldmaiden gown and added braided trim and a medallion belt.

I cannot for the life of me set in sleeves properly. 

The gown is loosely based on Eowyn's dark green gown from The Two Towers, which in turn is loosely based off of the medieval cotehardie or bliaut.


"A fresco depicting the story of 'the foolish virgins' from Castel d'Appiano in Trentino Alto Adige, Italy:
See the long flowing sleeves and the tight waists." [source]

Medieval women hunting. Not sure how they managed with trains and long flowy sleeves...[source]
A snowball fight in a dark green dress with gold trim, from an Italian fresco, dated to 1400-1407. [source]

As a historical project, this dress fails on a lot of counts -- like oh, the fact that it's constructed from cotton bedsheets -- but to the extent that I could, I tried to find examples to back up my choices. I took artistic license with princess seams and the slit up the middle of the bell sleeves, but kept the tight bodice, wide neckline, wide skirt with a train, and impractically huge sleeves over a tighter undersleeve.

The neck is so wide it doesn't stay on my shoulders very well. The necklace I found to go with it is just a cheap gold-colored one from Forever 21, but I thought the flowers looked vaguely like simbelmyne. 

For the trims, I kept the green and gold combination of my inspiration outfit, but did my research backwards. See, one of the first things you learn about how to study the Bible is not to go in with a preconceived idea, and then look for verses to back you up. Rather, you approach with an open mind and see what the Bible actually has to say. Well, I've got my costume hermeneutics all wrong, as I went ahead and picked out a trim, then went back to paintings that were vaguely contemporary and tried to find ones that would support my choice.

This painting of some dude from 1460 shows a black and gold braided trim that looks similar to mine. [source]
This painting of the Infanta Catalina Micaela de Austria from 1585 (I know, totally the wrong time period) shows a medallion belt of sorts. Actually, it might not even be a belt; it might just be trims at the waistline of her dress. [source]
And here's a closer look at my medallion belt:

It was really hard to photograph the medallions of the belt (okay, I wasn't really trying very hard and just snapped these pictures quickly), but they're a slightly different shade of gold than the trims, and both are slightly different from the gold in the necklace. The perfectionist in me is bothered by the three clashing shades of gold, but then I have to remind myself that nobody's going to be looking that closely, and the party won't be happening in broad daylight so the lighting will be more forgiving. 
The medallions I ordered were originally individual "antiqued brass" filigree pieces. I ended up coloring each of them with a gold metallic calligraphy pen to get them to be gold-colored, instead of a dirty gray-brown. I then used a whole lot of jump rings to put them all together into a belt. I know it hardly counts as jewelry-making, but I am so pleased with how this belt turned out. Even Mr. Cation was impressed and really liked the final product, and he's got some pretty high standards!  

Just the facts, ma'am:
The Challenge: #4 -- Embellishment
Fabric: Dark green 100% cotton king-sized flat sheet...squeezing in all my huge pattern pieces was the most mentally taxing part of the whole project! The bell-shaped oversleeves are lined with part of a light gold-green cotton sheet.
Pattern: Butterick 4571, a costume pattern if ever there was one, considering that one of the fabric recommendations is panne velvet...at least there isn't a zipper at the back.
Year: Modern
Notions: 4 yards of gold and black braided trim, 24 metal filigree medallions, lots of 1/4" brass jump rings, 26 metal eyelets for the back lacing
How historically accurate is it? Hah. Hahaha...yeeeaaahhh. I'm just going to laugh awkwardly and move on to the next question. I'm only including this as a HSF project because it's in the spirit of the challenge. Kind of.
Hours to complete: I'm still not done with the dress, as I need to hem it and sew on the lacing strips in the back. The embellishment, though, took a good five+ hours to hand-stitch the arm trim since it wouldn't fit around my machine's free arm, and I brilliantly decided that I wanted two rows of braid. The belt took another two hours, but with lots of breaks so as to avoid poisoning myself with fumes from the ink.
First worn: I'll be wearing it for the TORN party on Oscar night!
Total cost: $4 for the sheets, $3 for the eyelets, $10 for the belt materials, and the braided trim was free from Wholeport.com, as part of a prize from a contest two years ago. $17 total for a vaguely historical-flavored gown.

I know, I know, I'd make a terrible fashion historian. Hey, I'm just going to pull evidence from the wrong gender and the wrong time period, and do it all after I've already made my choices. Good thing this is just a costume!

29 comments:

  1. Hey, I think the result is awesome. No need to be self-critical; it's for fun. ;)

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    1. Heh, thanks for always being encouraging, Donna! I wasn't trying to be self-critical, more like poking fun at my backwards process!

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  2. LOL - you are so funny! (And the saddest part is you did more "research" than some professional costumers!) I like it and can't wait to see your party pics! =)

    ~ Brooke

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    1. I'm glad you found my backwards costume research amusing! And you can bet I'll take lots of pictures!

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  3. I think your dress is fantastic!! And I take my hat off to you for colouring over all the medallions - I'd have lost patience with that pretty quickly! Re the shoulders, what about sewing a piece of gold ribbon or braiding across the back of the neck from shoulder to shoulder? It should stop the shoulder slipping down, it worked for me on a shop-bought top. It could be a design feature! :)

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    1. Honestly, I only continued coloring because I couldn't have half the belt be a different color...

      I'm going to see if I can correct the shoulder issue with the back closure, as I don't want to change the look of the outfit with a ribbon across the shoulder. Thanks for the idea, though!

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  4. It's very nice! I love the color.
    It's like my 'Edwardian' skirt I made, hehe, not really historical but it's something at least resembling something historical and as another commentor said, it's for fun! :D

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    1. Yes, we can give each other awards for historical resemblance!

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  5. Try lingerie loops in the shoulders that can snap around your bra straps. (At least if you're not going for 100% historical accuracy, you can wear some more comfortable modern undergarments, right?). Can't wait to see photos of you in full regalia!

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion! I just added in lingerie loops...let's see if it's enough to get the shoulders to stay up, or if it just pulls my bra straps down too!

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  6. Bloody brilliant! I always wanted to be Eowyn...

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  7. Gorgeous dress! It might not be period-accurate but it looks fantastic!

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  8. I don't make costumes so I'm definitely not worried about historical accuracy, I'm fascinated by the approach you take and how you creatively find ways to get the right look. Your ability to make that outfit from bedsheets is impressive - the belt is my favourite bit, inspired :)

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    1. Thanks, I do love finding ways to make cost-effective costumes!

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  9. It's quite the art to make cotehardies that fit well and stay on correctly. I've been making them for nearly 10 years and I still have trouble. There are some great websites on how to fit them properly. Let me know if you're interested and I'll respond with some of the links.

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    1. I would love to see any resources you have on the subject! I actually wanted to make a more historically-accurate cotehardie at first, but decided that my tight timeline wouldn't allow me to do it justice. Anything you can send would be greatly appreciated for future efforts!

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  10. Its beautiful! And the belt ABSOLUTELY counts as making jewellery. You choose the pieces, designed it, customized it, and assembled it and the end result is jewellery. Ergo you made jewellery. Beautiful jewellery that I want to plagiarise. I can't wait to see you wearing it, I know you'll look amazing!

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    1. Oh, do plagiarize! Thanks for reassuring me that it counts...I read a snarky piece somewhere about how assembling isn't the same as jewelry designing/making, and got intimidated about calling it that...

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  11. Wowzer! I don't know how you make these amazing outfits, but I'm seriously impressed!

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    1. Aww, thanks! I just go where the bed sheets lead me ;)

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  12. I like it! So what if it fails as historically accurate, It reminds me of Eoywn's gown. I think the belt is SO COOL!
    The painting of the ladies hunting cracks me up!! I would have loved to see that hunting party!
    I'm sure you'll look amazing in your gown!

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    1. As long as it communicates Eowyn, that's good enough! And isn't that tapestry/painting (I don't even know what it is) hilarious? It's so impractical! It kind of makes me think of all those modern fashion shoots that take place in improbably locales.

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  13. I think it looks great! Only thing I would have done differently is spray painted all those medallions! My biggest problems with authentisity is money and patients. Example: I can't afford real silk and I'm too impatient to hand sew so I always loose points on my authenticity!

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    1. I'm so glad that someone else skips the real silk and hand-sewing part! I would've preferred to spray paint too, but I was trying to avoid spending any more money than necessary, and I already had a gold pen...

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  14. I love the term "costume hermeneutics"! :D And I love the snowball fight picture; your dress looks a lot like the green one in it... any snow where you live? A snowball fight photoshoot would make the dress shine, no doubt. :-)
    And cotton's actually quite historical, though they apparently rather used it for underwear... There's an article explaining that somewhere on this site:
    http://costumedabbler.ca/

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    1. Oh, I would love to do a snowball fight shoot, but alas, no snow in Southern California! As for the cotton thing, thanks for the link to the article...but I think linen or wool would still have been more appropriate for my time period.

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    2. No doubt. I'm just using it as an excuse for my own cotton dress! :D

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